[Archive] Enrollment situation of Skills Upgrading Scheme

Following is a question by the Hon Chan Kwok-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (February 19):

Question :

In September 2001, the Government launched a Skills Upgrading Scheme to provide skills training courses for people with secondary or lower education. In this connection, will the Government inform this council of :

(1) the respective numbers of people who have enrolled and completed training; the courses which were over subscribed and the details thereof;

(2) the number of persons who were unemployed when they enrolled in the courses, together with breakdowns by the industries to which the courses belonged, and the age, educational attainments and trades in which these persons had been last employed; and

(3) the employment rate of those persons, who had been previously unemployed, three months after they completed their training and, among them, the number who are employed in industries related to the courses they have completed?

Reply :

Madam President,

(1) From the launch of the Skills Upgrading Scheme (SUS) in September 2001 to the end of January 2003, a total of 1?161 classes have commenced with a total enrollment of 24?618 trainees. Of these, 19?643 graduates from 1?098 classes have completed training and course-end assessments. More than 90% of the 1?161 classes commenced with an enrolment rate of over 80%, and 734 classes (about 63.2%) even have 100% enrolment.

The SUS Secretariat has not collected figures on the situation of over-subscription of SUS courses. However, the Secretariat does receive requests from time to time from training bodies concerned to increase the number of approved classes. This indicates that the number of application for SUS courses often exceeds the approved training capacity. SUS courses for the retail, hairdressing, electrical engineering and property management industries are particularly well-received by the applicants. The Secretariat will offer more training places in accordance with market demand after approval from the respective Industry Working Groups has been sought, to provide more upgrading opportunities for in-service workers. By the end of January 2003, a total of 372 classes on top of the originally planned training capacity have been offered to meet market demand.

(2) The SUS offers on-the-job skills upgrading training and the unemployed are not its primary service target. Trainees are only required to provide information about their present occupations. As to whether trainees are unemployed, the SUS Secretariat has to rely on the self-declared information provided by the trainees.

According to the information collected by the SUS Secretariat, a total of 152 unemployed persons enrolled in SUS courses from September 2001 to January 2003. Breakdown by industries according to the courses they have taken is as follows :

Industries

Since the trainees are required to possess working experience relevant to the course they enrol, the breakdown of the previous employment by industry of these trainees is roughly the same as the breakdown by industries according to the courses they have taken.

The breakdown by age and educational attainment is as follows:

Age

Educational attainment

(3) Since the SUS aims primarily at providing skills upgrading training for in-service workers, the SUS Secretariat does not collect information on the trainees* employment situation after their completion of courses.

End/Wednesday, February 19, 2003

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